February 17, 2013

Brown Songlark - Cincloramphus cruralis

I was driving along... as you do and came across a few birds sitting on a fence. Fences are for "keeping out" or "keeping in" or for birds to sit on. All I know as we have too bloody many of them... fences that is. It's all part of the excessive control authorities seem to have over everything we do. It's sadly the Australian mentality to ban people from doing things for their own good... its seems nobody is happy unless somebody is stopping somebody else from accessing our common land, roads, tracks, for no other reason that they can... bloody bureaucrats and know-alls... moving on!

Brown Songlark’s fly around with their legs dangling in an ungainly and very unaerodynamic fashion all the while singing an inharmonious and slightly aggravating tune that would ruffle the feathers of a Black Duck. They are quite common in the Pilbara. The open expanses of spinifex grasslands and samphire flats are where they seem to like. And they like places up high such as bare branches sticking up in the air above the surounding vegetation or prominent rocks to sit on.

Tail high, long legs and a tall upright stance... a Brown Songlark surveys the world from a barbed wire fence. A very characteristic pose for Brown Songlarks.

The males are bigger than the females. Unlike the Spotted Hyena or the Blue Whale where females are larger than their male partners... the Triplewart Seadevil, a type of anglerfish, is hugely bigger than the male and is a seriously repulsive looking fish and is probably the only species whose appearance is uglier than its name.

Anyway, its all a bit of a lark because Brown Songlarks hang around with Rufous Songlarks which are those birds that flutter about way up high giving a person neck-strain trying to locate them. Together they also hang around with Horsfield’s Bushlarks which sneak about on the ground. It’s a lark heaven obviously.

Another Lark... Horsfield's Bushlark... finch like bill and mostly a ground dweller. Named after an American physician and naturalist who explored Java and Sumatra.

Brown Songlarks sit with their tails and heads held high like a fairy-wren only bigger. They stretch their necks and open their bills and look about. They like swamps and reed beds too. What I most appreciate about them is that you can easily identify them in the field, unlike so many of their brown cohorts.

Sitting on the fence is this Black-faced Woodswallow. Although they may occur in large numbers over the deserts, at times they are often quite solitary and found foraging from fences, power lines or other tall structures where they can survey the landscape for prey.